Justine Clarke flying high

“I’d dated a lot of guys and I wanted someone who was kind.”

Justine Clarke has been on our TV screens and in our theatres in an impressive array of roles for four decades. It would be age-inappropriate to call her a national treasure – she’s not yet 50 – but it’s tempting. Justine can switch from Ibsen on the New York stage opposite Cate Blanchett, to searing Aussie TV dramas – think Tangle, The Time of Our Lives, Hungry Ghosts – to Humpty Dumpty’s sidekick on Play School, not to mention a musical career that takes in sing-alongs for cheering kids as well as cruisy jazz standards in cabaret clubs. And hold on … just when you thought there was nothing Justine hadn’t mastered, her latest outing is factual TV presenter.

Sporting an enviable wardrobe of outfits representing every decade – mostly fabulous air-hostess uniforms – Justine heads up the three-part SBS documentary Come Fly With Me. As it turns out the series unintentionally evokes a hanky-wringing aura of nostalgia and poignancy, for as Justine declares: “Since we started filming there’s a whole new world order.”

2020 marks a century of civil aviation in Australia and also potentially the year the industry faces devastation thanks to COVID-19 travel restrictions. No doubt when the show was first mooted it was intended to be a celebration of an industry reaching for the stars, but with the Flying Kangaroo, Qantas, pretty much grounded, is a reminder of what we used to enjoy – the wonder of travel.